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They will ship them to India.

by carom 4y ago

vlovich123 4y ago
That’s a bold claim and would be a first. There are 0 components in an iPhone that are manufactured outside of Asia. You think they’re going to start manufacturing tens of millions of CPUs per year in the US just so they can pay the transport costs of shipping them to India. And forget the transport cost. The lag time to ship it is insane and the likely prohibitive reason I would think. Shipping to India is slower and more expensive than shipping to China I would think.
- throwaway2037 4y ago
  Overall, I agree with the sentiment of this post. However, I think "[zero] components in an iPhone that are manufactured outside of Asia" is a strong claim. I tried to Google about it. A bunch of hand wavy stuff with few hard facts. I cannot believe there zero parts in iPhone manufactured in Germany, Austria, Switzerland or US. Mittlestand in DACH has _so_ many small companies producing ultra-specialised goods that might appear in an iPhone. And surely the machines that make the parts are largely from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or US (and Japan/Korea, but they are in Asia). Side story: I remember attending a museum about the history of spinning cotton in Hongkong. The whole exhibit was full of manufacturing equipment made in Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. I had a laugh to myself about that... as the museum was touting the ingenuity and business prowess of the local cotton spinning industry. In my eyes, they were doing little more than running machines with very cheap labour and zero import tariffs. As soon as China opened even a little bit, that whole business ran over the border. Edit: Replace "bold" with "strong". It sounded condescending when I re-read my post. That is not my intent.
  - vlovich123 4y ago
    Zero electronics components. As someone noted, the glass comes from New York. > And surely the machines that make the parts are largely from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or US (and Japan/Korea, but they are in Asia). Those are one-off machines that are part of the assembly line (often times tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars). It’s different when you’re handling a continuous volume of tens of thousands of units each day. I have 0 knowledge of this for Apple but I worked generally on mobile phones and worked with the assembly line engineers in other companies and supply lines into China was a real thing which is why China was where assembly moved to in the first place - in addition to cheap labor, it was right beside SK for RAM/flash, Taiwan for all your chip manufacturing, Japan for display, etc.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  >There are 0 components in an iPhone that are manufactured outside of Asia. I'm pretty sure this is false. For one, Gorilla Glass is manufactured in New York.
  - vlovich123 4y ago
    Gorilla glass is not an electronics component (which I recognize isn’t what I wrote but is what I had in mind). The display is made in Asia.
    - midoridensha 4y ago
      It may not be an electronics component, but it's an extremely vital part of the device. Modern phones would not be what they are without Gorilla Glass: the slightest mishandling would smash the screen.
      - vlovich123 4y ago
        Electronics components are materially different in the supply chain. If Corning fails to deliver their next gen glass on time, I suspect Apple has contingencies in place (eg using the current gen). Production doesn’t change. If that happens to an electronic component it can seriously fuck up your schedule for setting the assembly line / shipping the phone on time. It’s not about the complexity of the component but the impact it has on production schedule. The CPU would be the worst since it’s super complex AND literally the brain of every phone. Now maybe because it’s in house it’s less of a concern (ie schedule has enough practice that they’re not worried about tape out and on time delivery). Or maybe I’m really wrong on how the iPhone supply chain actually looks like since it’s outside my area of expertise and I’m making conclusions based on second hand information that’s years out of date. Hence my original question. But random hypothesizing won’t answer that question.
      - vlovich123 4y ago
        I’ll correct myself. I’d like to see evidence gorilla glass itself is made outside Asia. Apple’s supplier list has manufacturing locations in SK and Taiwan for gorilla glass. I think Kentucky only makes engineering samples and/or the equipment for SK/Taiwan that’s used in manufacturing. They don’t make the actual component going onto your iPhone.
- carom 4y ago
  Some iPhones have been manufactured there since 2017 and Apple is looking to increase that as of a few days ago. https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-china-factory-protests-foxconn-manufacturing-production-supply-chain-11670023099 https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-china-factory-protests-fo...
  - vlovich123 4y ago
    I’m not saying manufacturing being in India is a first. I’m saying manufacturing a major electronics component and shipping it to the other side of the world for assembly would be the first. I’m well aware Apple has expanded where they manufacture things.

They will ship them to India.

by carom 4y ago

They will ship them to India.

That’s a bold claim and would be a first. There are 0 components in an iPhone that are manufactured outside of Asia. You think they’re going to start manufacturing tens of millions of CPUs per year in the US just so they can pay the transport costs of shipping them to India. And forget the transport cost. The lag time to ship it is insane and the likely prohibitive reason I would think. Shipping to India is slower and more expensive than shipping to China I would think.

throwaway2037 4y ago
Overall, I agree with the sentiment of this post. However, I think "[zero] components in an iPhone that are manufactured outside of Asia" is a strong claim. I tried to Google about it. A bunch of hand wavy stuff with few hard facts. I cannot believe there zero parts in iPhone manufactured in Germany, Austria, Switzerland or US. Mittlestand in DACH has _so_ many small companies producing ultra-specialised goods that might appear in an iPhone. And surely the machines that make the parts are largely from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or US (and Japan/Korea, but they are in Asia). Side story: I remember attending a museum about the history of spinning cotton in Hongkong. The whole exhibit was full of manufacturing equipment made in Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. I had a laugh to myself about that... as the museum was touting the ingenuity and business prowess of the local cotton spinning industry. In my eyes, they were doing little more than running machines with very cheap labour and zero import tariffs. As soon as China opened even a little bit, that whole business ran over the border. Edit: Replace "bold" with "strong". It sounded condescending when I re-read my post. That is not my intent.
- vlovich123 4y ago
  Zero electronics components. As someone noted, the glass comes from New York. > And surely the machines that make the parts are largely from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or US (and Japan/Korea, but they are in Asia). Those are one-off machines that are part of the assembly line (often times tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars). It’s different when you’re handling a continuous volume of tens of thousands of units each day. I have 0 knowledge of this for Apple but I worked generally on mobile phones and worked with the assembly line engineers in other companies and supply lines into China was a real thing which is why China was where assembly moved to in the first place - in addition to cheap labor, it was right beside SK for RAM/flash, Taiwan for all your chip manufacturing, Japan for display, etc.
midoridensha 4y ago
>There are 0 components in an iPhone that are manufactured outside of Asia. I'm pretty sure this is false. For one, Gorilla Glass is manufactured in New York.
- vlovich123 4y ago
  Gorilla glass is not an electronics component (which I recognize isn’t what I wrote but is what I had in mind). The display is made in Asia.
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    It may not be an electronics component, but it's an extremely vital part of the device. Modern phones would not be what they are without Gorilla Glass: the slightest mishandling would smash the screen.
    - vlovich123 4y ago
      Electronics components are materially different in the supply chain. If Corning fails to deliver their next gen glass on time, I suspect Apple has contingencies in place (eg using the current gen). Production doesn’t change. If that happens to an electronic component it can seriously fuck up your schedule for setting the assembly line / shipping the phone on time. It’s not about the complexity of the component but the impact it has on production schedule. The CPU would be the worst since it’s super complex AND literally the brain of every phone. Now maybe because it’s in house it’s less of a concern (ie schedule has enough practice that they’re not worried about tape out and on time delivery). Or maybe I’m really wrong on how the iPhone supply chain actually looks like since it’s outside my area of expertise and I’m making conclusions based on second hand information that’s years out of date. Hence my original question. But random hypothesizing won’t answer that question.
    - vlovich123 4y ago
      I’ll correct myself. I’d like to see evidence gorilla glass itself is made outside Asia. Apple’s supplier list has manufacturing locations in SK and Taiwan for gorilla glass. I think Kentucky only makes engineering samples and/or the equipment for SK/Taiwan that’s used in manufacturing. They don’t make the actual component going onto your iPhone.
carom 4y ago
Some iPhones have been manufactured there since 2017 and Apple is looking to increase that as of a few days ago. https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-china-factory-protests-foxconn-manufacturing-production-supply-chain-11670023099 https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-china-factory-protests-fo...
- vlovich123 4y ago
  I’m not saying manufacturing being in India is a first. I’m saying manufacturing a major electronics component and shipping it to the other side of the world for assembly would be the first. I’m well aware Apple has expanded where they manufacture things.